Of the estimated five million-plus Americans currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
disease, some 200,000 are afflicted with what
is called early-onset Alzheimer’s. That is, the
deteriorating cognitive disease shows its first
symptoms before a person turns 65. Such
is the misfortune of glamorous, intelligent,
creative restaurateur and cookbook-author
Smith. In what to the layperson, given the
advanced phase of her disease, seem remarkably lucid essays, Smith discusses what it feels
like to stand by as one’s memory and former
life begin to slip away. These accounts are
interspersed with passages written by her
husband, best friend, and business partner,
Gasby, as he comes to terms with lifestyle
adjustments made necessary by his true love’s
illness. Neither person makes any bones about
the situation. It is what it is: the moodiness,
the depression, the angry outbursts, all uncharacteristic and yet now commonplace.
The couple is loving, insightful, and, most
importantly, instructive about the realities of
life with Alzheimer’s. The included tips and
recommendations plus a list of resources will
all be helpful for patients and their families.
—Donna Chavez

Bio-Young: Get Younger at a Cellular and
Hormonal Level.

By Roxy Dillon.

Feb. 2016. 288p. Atria, $26 (9781476796819). 613.2.

Recognizing and sharing the desire to feeland look forever young, prominent certifiednutritionist and scientist Dillon, possessing amaster’s degree in biochemical pharmacologyand abiding trust in nature’s “potential to healand support the body,” has researched the ag-ing process and found what she believes is thepath to perpetual youthfulness via good nutri-tion and do-it-yourself treatments involvingessential oils and herbs. She maps it all outin this peppy guide, mixing detailed scientificexplanations of the loathsome yet, as she as-serts, not inevitable results of age (saggingskin, wrinkles, thinning hair, brittle bones,and worse) with instructions for rejuvenatingremedies. Her coverage of proteins (includ-ing the all-important sirtuin or “longevitygenes”), hormones, fibroblasts (cells that helpform connective tissue), antioxidants, andmore paves the way for her thorough elucida-tion of diverse natural therapies. Dixon covershow they work and their ingredients, prepa-ration, and use. The choices are many, whilethe routines range from quick and easy (drinkred grape juice) to elaborate concoctions andtime-consuming processes. A zippy, informa-tive, and intriguing approach to defying age.—Donna Seaman

The Cabaret of Plants: Forty

Thousand Years of Plant Life and
the Human Imagination.

By Richard Mabey.

Jan. 2016. 400p. illus. Norton, $29.95 (9780393239973).
580.

One of the most striking images in a book
saturated with them is a fourteenth-century
description of an animal
unlike any that had been
encountered before. It had a
stem growing from its navel
that rooted it to the ground.
This lamb-like creature was
later deduced to be the
pod of a cotton plant. It is
precisely this kind of misinterpretation of plants that Mabey (Weeds:
In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants,
2011), one of England’s most prominent naturalists, takes on in his delightfully accessible
work of scholarship. Using examples from
great churchyard yews to maize, the staff
of life, to ginseng to exotic tropical plants,
such as the Titan Arum, here is a systematic
and impassioned explanation for recognizing
plants as “authors of their own lives.” Even
as he evaluates the plant kingdom through
the various spectra of the prism of human
experience—art, medicine, food, religion—
Mabey insists on a subtle yet decisive shift
away from an anthropocentric outlook on
nature. This sensitive approach not only succeeds in giving these incredibly vital beings
their just place in the story of life. It also reminds us that, as we stare into the maw of
large-scale environmental change, we can
learn the right lessons from our relationship
with plants and draw inspiration from their
incredible resilience. —Poornima Apte

A Crude Look at the Whole: The Science
of Complex Systems in Business, Life,
and Society.

By John H. Miller.

Jan. 2016. 272p. illus. Basic, $28.99 (9780465055692). 003.

The whole is greater than the sum of itsparts is very much the theme of Miller’sintroduction to the characteristics of thecomplex systems that have long existed andthat humans (and other forces) are constantlyfashioning while never fully understandingthem. Those characteristics include in-teraction, feedback, heterogeneity, noise,molecular intelligence, group intelligence,networks, scaling, cooperation, and “self-organized criticality.” To illustrate them,Miller presents examples specific—feedbackin the “flash crash” of equities trading onMay 6, 2010; group intelligence in the hivesof honeybees; cooperation in the traditionalrice farming of Bali—and general, such asscaling in the relative metabolisms of differ-ent animals and networks in neighborhoodlawn care and racial segregation. Complexsystems confound specialization, individu-ality, selfishness, and other single-organismprocedures, but studying them helps us dis-cover “true places,” the kind Melville/Ishmaelsays in Moby-Dick are “not down in any map,[for] true places never are.” While Miller al-lows that his subject is demanding, he writesas accessibly about it as seems possible. Any-one caught by the fascination of complexitywill read every word. —Ray Olson

An Einstein Encyclopedia.

By Alice Calaprice and others.

Nov. 2015. 368p. illus. Princeton, $39.95
(9780691141749). 530.092.

Published to mark the 100th anniversary of
the general theory of relativity, this comprehensive, single-volume encyclopedia explores the
life of Nobel Prize winner
Albert Einstein. Einstein,
arguably one of the most
significant theoretical physicists of modern times, is
generally known for both
the theory of relativity and
E = mc², often referred to
as “the world’s most famous
equation.” What most people aren’t aware of
are the personal, spiritual, political, and social
facets of Einstein’s extraordinary life.

In this comprehensive work, three of the
foremost scholars on Einstein delve deeply
into the life of the renowned yet still enigmatic scientist, from his birth in Germany up
to his death, in New Jersey, in 1955. The encyclopedia is divided into three distinct parts:
“The Personal & Family Sphere,” “A Life in
the Sciences,” and “Identity & Principles.”
This book is full of fascinating information
about Einstein, including romantic interests
and rivals, myths and misconceptions, health
issues, hobbies, Jewish identity and ties, and
humanitarian work, just to name a few. There
are also entries devoted to all of Einstein’s
theories, inventions, and lectures as well as a
full chronology, black-and-white illustrations,
and archival photographs. Three appendixes
include select books and documentaries
about his life, and there is an annotated bibliography for further exploration. This is an
extremely well-organized and user-friendly
reference title, thoroughly researched and accessible to the general public, students, and